Pitch bends greater than a minor 3rd

Discussion of playback and midi issues go here.
PeteOrestes
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:28 pm

Post by PeteOrestes » Tue Jun 07, 2016 2:47 am

Hi all!
Has anyone managed to make pitch bends greater than a minor third (4 semitones) work reliably?
I've tried preceding the passage with the pitch bends with the messages ~C101,0 ~C100,0 ~C6,[semitones] where [semitones] is the number of semitones corresponding to the full extent of the pitch bend in either direction, so the normal bend of a tone either way would be ~C6,2. It seems to work for some instruments some of the time, but not all the time for any particular instrument. I'm puzzled.
Cheers!


andyg
Posts: 1727
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:55 pm
Sibelius Version: 7.1.3 and 6.2
Operating System: Windows

Post by andyg » Wed Jun 08, 2016 10:04 am

It depends entirely on the virtual instruments being used. I have some that refuse to bend further than a whole tone, one or two that won't pitch bend at all, and others that will quite happily bend 24 semitones! You're putting in the right commands, so check your instruments' documentation.

And I'm sure you already know that accurate pitch bend work is the job of a dedicated DAW/sequencer, rather than a notation programme.

PeteOrestes
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:28 pm

Post by PeteOrestes » Thu Jun 09, 2016 1:20 am

Many thanks, Andyg. I'm not interested in super-accurate pitch bends! I've found that for relatively fast glissandi etc, using the total minor third bend (i.e. using a hidden voice with the start note a whole tone higher/lower than the actual start note in the direction of the gliss, and starting with a whole tone bend in the opposite direction to the glissando) one can 'imply' much larger glissandi by spacing the bend commands carefullly (usually more widely toward the end of the gliss). This would work even better if slurs produced a true continuous legato - there's always some residual attack at the end note of the gliss!

Post Reply